1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a vibration damper for a motor vehicle chassis.
2. Description of the Related Art
A suspension strut produced by a casting method is known from DE 42 32 136 A1. The materials mentioned for the casting process are exclusively metal materials. A suspension strut serving as a supporting structural component part in a motor vehicle chassis is subject to high loads so that correspondingly demanding requirements are imposed on the materials as regards strength values. However, a suspension strut of this kind is comparatively heavy. Therefore, DE 42 32 136 A1 mentions aluminum as a possible lightweight construction material. However, aluminum is a relatively expensive material and, especially for this reason, has not been widely used in vibration dampers for vehicles in the compact class.
EP 0 027 163 A1 suggests fabricating an outer jacket tube of a vibration damper from plastic. An inner work cylinder is made of metal material. The inner work cylinder is under the operating pressure inside the work spaces by reason of its function. In comparison, the loading of the outer jacket tube is appreciably less because, on one hand, the connection member on the jacket tube side is connected to the bottom valve and work cylinder by a metal connection pin and, on the other hand, the level of pressure, if any, occurring in the compensation space is appreciably lower than in a work space of the inner work cylinder.
It is known from DE 103 20 002 A1 to produce a piston rod for a vibration damper from plastic.
It is known from DE 10 2007 053 120 A1 to produce a steering knuckle for a motor vehicle chassis from a fiber-reinforced composite material. The steering knuckle has a shell-shaped basic structure and is connected to a suspension strut by a clip-like closure. The steering knuckle is formed by a woven or non-woven material that must be given the predetermined shape of the steering knuckle. This skeleton structure is inserted into a mold and coated with a filler. The cast part is given its final shape by mechanical reworking. For this reason, complex structural component parts such as steering knuckles necessarily also have a correspondingly complicated fiber reinforcement.